Falling Skies: A Father Left Behind
by iDon'tWanaLove
Summary: Matt feels alone when Tom and Hal are out fighting while Ben is trying to find out what is wrong with Rick. Pope is making the Mech bullets and Matt finds a father figure in the most unusual place.


It'd been a long day for Pope, working with melted Mech armor to make the special bullets for the 2nd Mass could really take it out of a man. His hand hovered over the wound on his leg for a moment and he let his mind wander, why the hell was he back at the 2nd Mass anyways; besides the wound. He didn't have to save Mason's kids, he didn't have to open fire on those sons-of-bitches, he could have just gotten his revenge on blowing up their home and then sniping them later; but here he was, back at the 2nd and making them bullets. Pope threw his arms up in exhasperation and headed for the door. As he limped out into the hallway he noticed a shady figure out of the corner of his eye, his hand immediatly went towards his gun holister only remember that he wasn't allowed to carry one anymore.

"Fuck, alright who's over there?"

"I'm sorry, i didn't mean to spy!"

Out of the shadows walked the youngest Mason boy, the one who gave him the idea to use the Mech metal for the bullets. The kid kept figiting under Pope's stare and ran off not long after, leaving the older convict standing alone. Pope walked to the chem lab and sat down on one of the beds, Anne walked over and began to unwrap his leg but refused to talk to him. Pope let his head fall back as Dr. Glass worked on him, his mind kept going back to the Mason bratt and why the kid would want to spy on him. Shouldn't Mason be keeping an eye on his kids?

"Hey doc, where's Mason?"

"Weaver ordered Tom and a team to go get more drugs, why?"

"Shouldn't someone be watching his brats?"

"They should be fine as long as they don't leave the school, why does it concern you anyway?"

She said venomously, pulling tight on the bandage around Pope's thigh, causing him to hiss in pain. Pushing himself out of the bed, Pope limped to the door only to pause and turn to face the doctor with a surprisingly solem look.

"It doesn't."

The next few days Pope worked endlessly on the bullets, sleeping only two or so hours a night to get enough for the whole resistance force to fight with; to put it simply, he was exhausted and he still had alot of work to do. He would see the kid come in every once in a while and he'd just sit there and watch, at one point Pope asked him if he wanted something; the kid took off again. The next time the kid showed up Pope caught him off gaurd and locked the door, then the youngest Mason boy ducked under a desk and started to cry. Pope looked around with a humored look on his face before kneeling down infront of the child, the child who covered his face with his hands in a childish attempt to hide.

"Kid i ain't gonna hurt you, i just want to know why you've been spying on me for the past couple days; i sure as hell know your Dad doesn't want you near me."

"My Dad hasn't come home yet with Hal, Ben is with Rick all the time, but you are always here! Everytime i walk down the hall you are in here, it's nice."

"It's nice to see a con working with explosives?"

"I like having someone around all the time."

Pope rolled his and ruffled the kid's hair before turning back to his work.

"I'm Matt."

"Pope."

"Can i help?"  
>Pope looked at the kid with a confused grin on his face; not only was this going to make his life easier but also piss off Tim, to who he was still bitter about throwing away his mag back at the ranch. So he started training the kid with simple stuff, piling up and packaging the ammo into clips and mags but within a few hours the kid could already load the guns and even melt down Mech armor; Pope was impressed. Two days later and the kid was still working with him, Weaver tried to step in and put a stop to it but the kid stood up for himself; actually he more or so replaced his Dad.<p>

"You can't stop me from working with Pope, i want to be with him! He takes care of me and he won't let anything bad happen to me! Just leave us alone!"

Around midnight Pope woke up to the sound of footsteps entering his room, his insticts told him to reach for the closest weapon and attack but he had a good idea who had come for such a late visit.

"What are you doing here kid?"

"How'd you know it was me?"

"You just said it was you, now why so late amigo?"

"i'm scared."

Matt hugged the teddy bear in his arms a little bit harder and waited for Pope to say something, when he didn't the little boy tried to leave only to feel the older man's hand on his shoulder. His little arms wrapped around Pope's waist and the con found himself ruffling the kid's hair; Pope led the Matt over to his bed and sat him down.

"What are you scared of kid?"  
>"Everything! I'm scared for my Dad and Hal, and about the Skitters, and i'm scared about sleeping alone; what if one comes in and gets me?"<p>

"Do you know how many guys with guns are patroling this place? Tons, there is no possible way that one of those things could get in here."

"But the guys with guns scare me too, Clayton was one of these guys once."

"Listen kid, your Dad shot the hell out of that guy and saved you; i know your Dad wouldn't let anything bad happen to you, ever."

"But my Dad isn't here, how can he protect me?"

"He'd come in time, he seems to have a knack for it."

"Until he comes back, will you protect me?"

"Sure kid, just go to sleep."

Pope waited for the kid to fall asleep before moving to another cot across the room, he knew that if Mason didn't want his kid talking to him then he sure as hell didn't want Matt sleeping with him. But when he looked over at the kid, Pope began to feel reminiscent of his own kids; he loved those damn kids but his wife took them to Florida, she thought she knew everything. Pope shut his eyes and forced himself to sleep, he didn't want to get into this with the kid in the room; he shouldn't have to get into it at all.

When Matt opened his eyes again it was still very dark and there was alot of noise coming from the hallway, he looked around the room for his Dad only to remember that he was with Pope when he fell asleep.

"A Skitter got into the building!"

"Where is it?"

"No one knows!"

Matt shrunk back against the far wall and tried to become invisible, without his Dad or Pope to protect him Matt knew it was only a matter of time before the Skitter got him. The screams died down after a few minutes, becoming almost silent in an instant; Matt didn't know what was going on but he knew that the school was never this quiet. He covered his face with his hands and wished that his Dad was here, that Hal and Ben were here to protect him; but he was all alone again. Footsteps caused the little boy to look up from his hands and that's when he froze in his place, seeing a Skitter walk into the room.

"No. No no no no no no no! Get away from me! Help! HELP!"

Matt started screaming and throwing every possible object towards the alien as possible in a futal attempt to escape, it just swatted away books and pillows like they were nothing. The boy was backed up into a corner crying as the Skitter cralwed closer and closer towards him; it reached out one of it's arms and caressed the side of Matt's face, causing him to scream. Just as he shouted the Skitter's head exploded and the body fell backwards onto the floor, revealing Pope with a pistol and a very pissed off look.

"I leave to piss for FIVE MINUTES and all hell breaks loose!"

Matt was still crouched in the corner crying out for his Dad, Pope walked over and kneeled infront of him.

"Kid, you're safe. Why are you still crying?"

"Because i really thought it was gonna get me, i thought you lied."

"Kid, i always lie. No matter what i say, three fourths of the time i'm lying about something; but never will i lie about killing those bastards or keeping little punks like you safe."

"I'm sorry, i want to be brave like you but i just can't stop being scared."

Pope sighed and stood up, turning to face Matt, he held the gun out in his hand. The kid's face showed his uncertanty so Pope placed the gun in his hands, aimed it at the Skitter corpse and pulled the trigger. The kid jumped at first but a smile tore across his face as he pulled the trigger time after time; when all the ammo was gone the kid started kicking the body.

"That's for Mom and Ben! This is for scaring me!"

"Woah there champ, i think it's dead! Good job kid, now you have nothing to be scared of."

Matt smiled up at Pope and wrapped his arms around the older man's waist.

"Okay okay, go back to bed kid; we've got alot of work to do in the morning."

"Alright, just don't go to the bathroom while i'm asleep; the gun is out of bullets,"

Pope just laughed.

Tom and Hal walked tiredly through the hallways, they'd already found Ben to let him know they were back and were now on the hunt for Matt. They'd checked for him with Anne, the other kids, and even Ben but no one had seen him. Weaver approached the two in the hallway with a serious expression.

"What's wrong Captain?"

"A Skitter somehow made it into the building last night."

"So what, you want Hal and i to be on patrol tonight?"

"No, it's your other son that you should be interested in. He took the Skitter down with Pope's help. Pope gave the kid a gun and he proved himself to bea rather good shot."

"Why was Pope around my son at all?"

"Why don't you ask him that? He's right down the hall."

Tom shoved his gun into Hal's hands and took off towards the science room, to his surprise he found Pope teaching Matt to shoot at a broken Mech. He paused at the door to watch only to find that Matt had the best aim he'd ever seen, taking out pennies that Pope had taped to the metal.

"That's some sharp shooting kid, pretty impressive. Now go get some lunch, you've worked enough for today."

"Thanks for teaching me Pope!"

Tom watched furiously as Matt hugged Pope around the waist, he was ever more pissed off when Pope ruffled his son's hair; not that the gesture was wrong or anything, he just didn't want that convict rubbing off on Matt. Tom coughed loudly, causing Matt to shout out for him and come running into his arms; the whole time Tom kept his eyes glued to Pope.

"Dad, i've missed you so much! You'll never believe what Pope and i have been doing! First we were making these awesome bullets to kill the Mechs and then last night he saved me from a Skitter! Then he taught me how to save myself, I's so cool! Wanna see?"

"I'd love to but i think you should get some lunch first."

"Are you coming with me?"

"I'll be there in a minute."

Matt's face dropped but he followed orders and left, leaving Pope and Tom alone. Tom began to pace, he dropped his bag on the floor and dropped his pistol on a desk before getting in Pope's face; The convict knew what this was about and he'd been waiting for it, eagerly.

"What the hell are you doing around my son Pope?"

"The thing it seems you haven't been; parenting."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"What i mean Papa Smurf, is that you've given alot of attention to the two older brats but the little runt seems to have been dropped off the radar."

"That's not true!"  
>"Who are you trying to convice Mason, me or yourself."<p>

Tom tried to speak but Pope pushed him down into a chair and stood over him menacingly, the father tried to reach for his gun but again Pope was too quick; the convict looked Tom once over before scoffing.

"Listen to me Tom, i'm a father too and yeah, i've done this game too; you'll pay attention to the ones who are in the most trouble or danger because you are sooo sure the ones who aren't are just fine, but they aren't. The ones left out are well, left out. The kid wanted to have lunch with you after not seeing you for days and you blow him off to have a screaming match with me, he came to me because he wants something stable."

"How the hell are you stable? You'll ditch the second no one is watching!"

"You're right, i even told the kid i was a liar but he was so desperate for attention and protection that he stuck by me. Come on Tom, be a parent."

"Who are you to talk to me about parenting? Where the hell are your kids Pope?"

Pope, enraged, swung at Tom and succesfully hitting him square in the jaw and knocking him out of the chair. He didn't stop, Pope got ontop of the father and kept on swinging, left and right, right and left with rage filled eyes. He only paused for a second but it was long enough for Tom to counter with a jab to the ribs and a punch to the wound on his thigh; the two continued to fight until a crashing sound came from the doorway. There stood Matt holding two bowls of soup and one broken bowl on the ground.

"Matt..."

"Really? I just wanted to have lunch with you Dad, Pope was just teaching me how to protect myself and you start a fight? Well you know what?"

Matt dropped the other two bowls on the ground.

"I'll go have lunch with Hal, i know he missed me."

"Matt wait!"

But Matt had already taken off down the hall, leaving the two men on the floor; both bleeding a bit and pretty pissed off.

"Seems like you have more than enough problems Mason, don't add me to the list."

"Don't you think they could still be alive?"

"Not a chance, their mother didn't pay enough attention to them as it was; now that the aliean apocolypse hit, she'd be too wrapped up in herself to notice them. My kids are gone because she isn't a good parent, don't you dare lose yours."

Tom looked at Pope for another second before pushing himself off the floor and after Matt. Pope stared at the ceiling for a while, not crying, nope. Pope wasn't the kind of guy to cry, nor would he admit to laying on the floor and doing so; he was just allergic to the gun powder.

"The kid'll be fine, even if he isn't there; i will be."


End file.
